Top Seeded Milton Upset in Boys Soccer State Tourney

Almost 46 hours after it started, Milton's first round state tournament game with Parkview finally ended on Friday. And it ended dramatically.

After 80 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime wasn't enough to decide a winner, the two teams headed to penalty kicks. And when the dust cleared, the fourth seeded Panthers escaped Milton High School with a 4-3 win over the top seeded Eagles.

Neither team was able to put the ball in the net during the 90 minutes of regulation and overtime, which meant penalty kicks. During PK's, each team is allotted five shots on goal from 12 yards away. The two teams alternate shots.

Milton's Derek Creviston, Ousman Ceesay and Slade Gottlieb all did something similar with their shots: they hit hard grounders to the right side that made it past Parkview goalie Jack Falle. However, Falle did make a save on a penalty kick by Ryan Degnan, meaning Milton hit three of their first four.

Parkview answered Milton's three goals with three makes of their own. Thanks to a brilliant save by Milton goalie Ron Wingall, the Panthers missed their first shot, but they rebounded by hitting their next three.

Shooter No. 5 for Milton was Mo Jadama. Falle made a diving stop on Jadama's rocket shot, which meant that if Parkview's final shooter–Abel Nguyen–made his shot, the Panthers would win. Nguyen hit a hard grounder to the right and after it got past a diving Wingall and into the back of the net, the Parkview bench erupted in celebration.

Milton coach Michael Nova isn't a big fan of penalty kicks.

"It should never go that way," a disappointed Nova said after the game. "It should always be played until someone scores, I've never liked [penalty kicks]."

One of Nova's problems with penalty kicks is that his team lost even though his "defense didn't give up a goal."

Nova was quick to point out that Parkview's defense didn't give up a goal either.

"They have a [goalie] that can punt it 70 yards and defenders who got in our way," Nova said of Parkview goalkeeper Jack Falle and his defense. "They did their job, my hats off to them."

The game, which started on Wednesday evening, was postponed to Friday thanks to several lightning strikes and a tornado warning in the North Fulton area. The two teams played 73 minutes on Wednesday. The final 6:27 of regulation, the two five-minute overtime periods and the penalty kicks were all held on Friday.